Lives in the Yiddish
TheatreSHORT BIOGRAPHIES OF THOSE INVOLVED IN
THE Yiddish THEATRE
aS DESCRIBED IN zALMEN zYLBERCWEIG'S "lEKSIKON FUN YIDISHN TEATER"1931-1969

Moshe
Simonoff

Born in 1859 in Kamenets
Podolsk, Ukraine, to a well-to-do family. He learned in
a cheder and with local, prominent melamdim. At
age seventeen he married, and from time to time due to
his beautiful voice he prayed before Emud(ah?). A year
later he became familiar with mashkil Simeon
Ruder, whose daughter taught him Russian, and S. began
to read Russian books and newspapers, as well as Tenach
and Haskalah books . He often sang during various
meetings of mashkilim, and through them bravely
came to study music. He then went to Peterburg, where he
was heard by the professors of the state conservatory
Gabel and Samus, but due to that, his parents didn't
underwrite the necessary papers, and he wasn't able to
enter into the conservatory.

Not being able any longer to
find himself in his home environment, he immigrated in
1886 to America, where he worked for the first time in a
cigarette factory, and then as a refugee(?) worker. In
1887 he was a chorister, engaged to Moshe Zilberman in
the Oriental Theatre, with the condition that he may not
belong to the chorister union, and soon S. performed in
concerts for the organization "Ruski robotshi soyuz",
and there he became familiar with choristers, members of
the chorister union, which took him in as a member.

Since then M. became one of
the activist union workers in the field of the Yiddish
theatre. With his entire youthful energy, he threw
himself into the former conflict of the choristers for
better

conditions, and for the
recognition of their association, which directed a
strike that after two months won. S. then became
appointed to organize the choristers. As punishment for
his organizational work, he was no longer engaged in the
theatres as a chorister, and therefore for the 1887-88
season, he joined the troupe that was put together by
the Israel brothers and Samuel Dorf (former president of
the Independent Order of Brith Avraham) for the Standard
Theatre in Baltimore, where he was a chorister and acted
in small roles, debuting as "Rabbi" in Shomer's "Der
bel-tshuvah". After acting for several months under very
difficult conditions in Baltimore, the troupe moved to
Philadelphia (Thalia Theatre, 4th and Kala HIll), where,
due to the activity of the Yiddish quarter, business
again was bad. In the middle of the season Avraham
Goldfaden put together a troupe for Boston (where Boris
Thomashefsky was also performing), from where M. went
with several actors to Philadelphia, and when
Thomashefsky left -- due to a conflict -- the troupe, S.
performed in the role of "Bar Kochba", and remained from
then on to act in responsible roles.

1888 -- S. organized the
first Yiddish actors' union in America, to which all of
the former Yiddish actors belonged (besides the owners
of the theatres such as Kessler, Feinman, Mogulesko,
Finkel, Chaimovich, et al). This union, together with
the chorister union, writer's union and the Yiddish
branch [section] of the socialistic workers party, were
the four that organized, whcih had founded the United
Jewish Workshops in America.

Since then, S. acted until
1920 in New York in various troupes, whre he took on
prominent positions. Among his other roles, he was in
1894 the first to play the role of "Alter tsipes" in
Gordin's "Di litvishe brider lurie".

Since 1920 S. acted in the
American province, mainly in Philadelphia, where he also
had in the local "Forward" (13, 21 November 1927)
published his autobiography.

S. attempted to write plays,
but without success. Therefore he had "tsugefikst"
{"oysgebesert"] entire plays, including "Dos lebn
in nyu-york", "Kol nidre" and "Bat khn".

A radical, S. participated
in the Jewish Workers Movement in America, and had in
1907, during a crisis, helped found the socialistic
folks-kukh, was a co-founder of a children's' homes,
orphanages, and the moshav-zknim on Jefferson and
Cherry Streets, and he often used to perform in the
rallies for the Yiddish Actors Union, distributing the
union viewpoints.